mption one-half;
the falling of silks one-fifth, doubled the consumption; of coffee
one-fourth, trebled it, and of cotton goods one-half quadrupled it.

A multitude of similar facts could be collected in our own country,
showing the uniform and powerful tendency of diminished cost to increased
consumption. A gentleman who is interested in a certain panorama said
that, in a certain case, the exhibiter wrote to him that the avails, at a
quarter of a dollar per ticket, were not sufficient to pay expenses. "Put
it down to twelve and a half cents," was the reply. It was done, and
immediately the receipts rose so as to give a net profit of one hundred
dollars a week.

These facts prove that there is a settled law in economics, that in the
case of any article of general use and necessity, a reduction in the price
may be expected to produce at least a corresponding increase of
consumption, and in many cases a very largely increased expenditure. So
that the amount expended by the people at low prices will be fully equal
to the amount expended for the same at high prices. The people of England
expend now as much money for postage, as they did under the old system,
but the advantage is, that they get a great deal more service for their
money, and it gives a spring to business, trade, science, literature,
philanthropy, social affection, and all plans of public utility.

II. _Nothing but Cheap Postage will suppress Private Mails._

It is true that, in this country, private mails are not of so long
standing, nor so thoroughly systematized as they were in Great Britain
before the adoption of cheap postage. But on the other hand, the state of
things in this country affords much greater facilities for that business,
and renders their suppression by force of law much more difficult and more
odious than in Great Britain.

On this head, the report of the Parliamentary Committee contains a vast
mass of information, which made a deep and conclusive impression, upon the
statesmen of that country. They found and declared that, "with regard to
large classes of the community, those classes principally to whom it is a
matter of necessity to correspond on matters of business, and to whom also
it is a matter of importance to save, or at least to reduce the expense of
postage, the post-office, instead of being viewed as it ought to be, and
as it would be under a wise administration of it, as an institution of
ready and universal access, distribu